H.S. SOFTBALL: East Bridgewater advances to semifinals with big win

It only took six innings for the fourth-seeded East Bridgewater softball to earn a 16-4 victory over fifth-seeded Maimonides on Monday in a Division 3 South Sectional softball quarterfinal.

Mike BernierEnterprise Correspondent

EAST BRIDGEWATER – It only took six innings for the fourth-seeded East Bridgewater softball team to earn a 16-4 victory over fifth-seeded Maimonides on Monday in a Division 3 South Sectional softball quarterfinal. The win earned the Vikings a spot in the semifinals against top-seeded Bristol-Plymouth tonight at 7 at Taunton High School.

It was truly an all-around effort at the plate by the South Shore League champion Vikings (17-4). They scored at least one run in every inning and pounded out 14 hits. Sophie Halverson, Dayna Marchant, Julia Clifford, Mikayla Kingman and Jenna Talabach all had multiple hits. Madison Palmquist added three RBI while Emily Dyer and Karlie Fruzzetti also added RBI coming off the bench.

“We didn’t hit well in the first game (a 2-0 victory over Sacred Heart), so I knew we were going to come around,” East Bridgewater coach Michael Dunphy said. “We average about nine runs a game. It was good to see kids who haven’t played as well step up and contribute as well.”

Jhonna Egan, who was 14-2 with a 2.18 ERA this year, had a bit of a rocky start for the Vikings. She surrendered all four of the M-Cats’ runs in the first two innings, but Egan recovered nicely. The big hit came on a three-run home run by senior captain Michal Alge, but that was the last noise the M-Cats were able to make.

“That’s been one of our weaknesses (giving up early runs),” said Dunphy. “The fact that she can settle down is to her credit. She has shown great senior leadership and is pitching the best of her career.”

Egan is one of only two seniors on the team, with center fielder and fellow captain Marchant being the other.

“They’re going to be hard to replace,” Dunphy said. “They are two of the best captains we have had, and their leadership has been really important because we have three freshman starters who look to them for advice.”

Those three freshmen are Halverson, Jackie Gavin and Bria Allen, who all chipped in with hits on Monday and have been among the Vikings’ top hitters all season.

Halverson had a 2-for-4 day, which doesn’t even help the team-leading .513 batting average she had entering the game. Gavin and Allen are also among the team’s leading hitters at .403 and .372, respectively, entering Monday’s game.

An underlying story in Monday’s contest was the frequent pausing in game action due to several debated calls and a few fans trying to fill the role of umpire.

“We emphasized before the tournament that it’s the same game, its softball,’’ Dunphy said. “There’s a lot more fans and they’re a lot more vocal. But I just tell them to fight that off and play their best game.”

The Vikings now face the challenge of battling top-seeded Bristol-Plymouth.

“It’s a big challenge because they’re here every year,” Dunphy said. “We played them in a scrimmage in the beginning of the year, but you can’t really tell from that. We respect them. We’re expecting a really hard game and we have to play our best.”

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